Independence Day

Independence Day (1996) is Roland Emmerich's alien-invasion blockbuster — watch online on iFILM. City-sized ships appear over New York, Los Angeles and Washington D.C. Governments scramble, communications collapse, and the Fourth of July is about to mean something very different for everyone alive.

Three strangers end up carrying the fight. Marine pilot Steve Hiller, played by Will Smith, goes from routine patrol to hand-to-hand combat with a downed alien. Cable technician David Levinson, played by Jeff Goldblum, spots a countdown signal hidden inside the invaders' satellite uplink. President Thomas J. Whitmore, played by Bill Pullman, trades diplomatic caution for a cockpit. Their plan is improvised, absurd and somehow the only thing that might work.

The film grossed over 800 million dollars worldwide and took home the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, with the White House destruction sequence still used as a benchmark in film schools. Emmerich turned the disaster genre into a global spectacle with almost no restraint and every dollar on screen. Stream Independence Day online on iFILM.